Minnesota’s Joe Mauer throws before a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Detroit, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013. Mauer was scratched from the lineup against the Tigers because he experienced dizziness Tuesday night in batting practice, and is now on the team’s 7-day concussion disabled list. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

DETROIT — Joe Mauer’s ears must have been burning Wednesday evening. As the Twins catcher started his seven-day concussion stay in his hotel, his future behind the plate dominated pregame talk at Comerica Park.

Mauer joined a laundry list of catchers diagnosed with concussions in recent weeks. Alex Avila of the Detroit Tigers is on the concussion DL, as are Yorvit Torrealba (Colorado), Carlos Corporan (Houston) and John Jaso (Oakland).

“Every team in baseball would like to have Joe Mauer behind the plate, I guarantee you that,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Catcher is a pretty important position. He’s so important back there: calling a game and running a game. Then you have a guy that can hit, too.”

But he can hit while playing first base, too, something Mauer started doing during an injury-plagued season in 2011, when he was limited to 82 games by leg and neck injuries. The concussion has renewed that topic of discussion.

Before absorbing a hard foul tip from New York’s Ike Davis off his facemask, Mauer was on track to start 95 games at catcher, which would have been the most since he started 107 in 2010.

How much time Mauer spends catching as this season winds down could depend on how quickly he’s able to return from this concussion, and whether he has any setbacks along the way.

At some point in the future, Gardenhire said, general manager Terry Ryan could sit down with Mauer, 30, and advise him his catching days are over.

“That could happen,” Gardenhire said. “If this becomes one of those situations where this affects (Mauer) for any length of time, yeah, it could happen. It’s going to have a lot to do with how Joe thinks about it.”

Mauer sent a text message to Gardenhire during his daily media session, and the plan remains to have Mauer come to Comerica Park on Thursday for further evaluation.

If he is deemed fit to fly, Mauer will return to the Twin Cities while the rest of the Twins’ traveling party takes a two-hour, 40-minute bus ride to Cleveland for a weekend series against the Indians.

Mauer said last month in New York at his sixth All-Star Game that he still loves to catch but realizes he won’t be able to stay there forever.

“I know eventually I won’t be able to catch a whole lot,” he said, “but then again eventually I won’t be able to play this game. Right now I don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense for me to move positions.”

On Tuesday, shortly before experiencing dizziness during batting practice and subsequently being diagnosed with a concussion, Mauer recalled his one-game emergency stint in right field on Aug. 18, 2011, against the New York Yankees.

Australian outfielder Luke Hughes missed a flight after being promoted from Triple-A Rochester, and Mauer drew the short straw before heading out to right.

“It was either Justin (Morneau) or myself going out to right field,” Mauer said. “We were playing short-handed. It was better to have one guy out of position than two, so I went out to right.”

Brett Gardner hit a pair of fly balls to Mauer, including a sacrifice fly in the second inning of an 8-4 Twins loss. Mauer also recalled scooping up a few singles that rolled into his area.

“I was just glad I was able to make the play,” Mauer said. “I enjoyed it when it was over.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

The Twins and the cash-strapped Tampa Bay Rays had plenty of trade conversations throughout the offseason. Saturday evening, all those cell minutes and text messages finally bore fruit. Right-hander Jake Odorizzi, who turns 28 just before Opening Day, will make the short drive from Port Charlotte, Fla., to Fort Myers to join his new team. In exchange for Odorizzi, who...

With only 20 minutes separating the Wild from building a three-point cushion over the Ducks for the final spot in the Western Conference playoff race, they let the lead slip away and ultimately fell 3-2 to on the heels of the longest shootout in franchise history. After 11 rounds and 22 shooters, Ducks winger Nick Ritchie finally beat Devan Dubnyk...

The Gophers men’s hockey team settled for a 1-1 tie with Ohio State on Saturday at 3M Arena at Mariucci but moved within one point of clinching home ice for the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Mat Robson stopped 38 of 39 shots he faced for Minnesota (19-13-2, 10-10-2-1), which is unbeaten in its past four games. After...

Karl-Anthony Towns was the toast of the NBA during his rookie season. The revolutionary big man was the unanimous choice for the league’s Rookie of the Year award after capturing all six Western Conference Rookie of the Month awards during the season. Surely, he was on the path to becoming one of the league’s next great players. These were the...

The matchups for the 2018 Minnesota high school girls hockey state tournament are set. Defending champion Edina earned the top seed in Class 2A, after knocking off defending Class A champ Blake in Friday’s Class 2A, Section 6 title game. Centennial will be the No. 2 seed in its first tournament appearance since 2008, while Hill-Murray, making its sixth straight...

The Gophers suffered another setback Saturday as the team announced guard Amir Coffey will undergo surgery on his right shoulder and miss the remainder of the season. The 6-8 guard already missed 10 games prior to Saturday’s announcement with the right shoulder injury. Coffey originally hurt the shoulder in early January, then re-injured it on a late-game dunk in the...